Double Red
by Kelsey
Summary: The events of "Seeing Red", twisted. Who will survive, and how will they cope with their losses? AU immediaely post-Warren shooting people.
1. Prologue

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****

Double Red

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: Not mine. Joss owns all, and wrecks episodes with the mastery of someone who owns all.

Summary: The events of "Seeing Red," twisted. AU from immediately before Warren shoots people.

Rating: PG-13 for now, probably R later.

* * *

****

Prologue

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"Willow!" Tara fell to her knees, screaming her beloved's name. "Willow! No!" She cradled the redhead's limp form, brushing the hair away from her face. "Willow, don't! Please, _please_ don't leave me!"

Tears ran down her cheeks but she paid them no heed. Brushing fingertips over the witch's face, she sobbed painfully, repeating her denial over and over again. "No, no, no, no..."

An idea came to her, and she sat up a little straighter and held her free hand out over the wound in the redhead's chest. The Latin words fled from her, so she recited the spell in English.

"Goddess of the moon

God of the sun

Bring back life to the daughter 

You've watched over since she was young." 

The simple incantation disguised a powerful healing spell, and Tara's body jolted, then shivered as her powers were drawn, but Willow's form didn't stir. Tara fell over her, sobbing.

It took a few minutes, but she finally gathered herself enough to stop her tears and start to think again. She pushed away all of her emotions, refusing to let herself think about anything but her very next move. She knew Buffy and Xander were here, she needed to go tell them. But she couldn't leave Willow.

Carefully, she gathered her beloved into her arms and rested the red head on her shoulder. Cradling her with all the care she would give an infant, she carried her slowly down the hall and then the stairs. Her body strained with the effort, but she barely felt it. She'd simply decided it was possible, so now it was.

When she entered the living room, Xander's form caught her eye. He was bending over something on the ground outside, and he was shaking. She couldn't hear him through the glass, but he was talking... then Tara caught a glimpse of blond hair, and her heart nearly stopped. Was Buffy... was Buffy shot, too?

Gently putting Willow's body down on the couch, Tara closed the staring eyes with her fingertips and then just looked at her for a long moment. She couldn't bear to leave her, but if Buffy was still alive, then maybe she could do something. Maybe she could stop another senseless death.

Painfully, she turned away, and jogged out the door, breaking into a run as soon as she was clear of the steps. "Xander!"

The dark-haired man turned and saw Tara. "Tara! Oh, god. Did something happen?" He'd clued in almost instantly to the closed-off expression on the witch's face, something he'd seen too much of since she and Willow broke up. But now, it was even worse. "Willow. Is she okay?" He kept the pressure on Buffy's wound as he turned to look at the young witch.

Tara's face was blank as she came over and added her scarf to the pile of bloody clothing on Buffy's chest. "She's dead." There was no expression in her voice at all.

Xander's breath caught, and he felt like his heart stopped. "Oh god." Instantly his eyes started to tear. "Willow...?"

Tara nodded curtly. "Took a bullet through the chest. I couldn't save her."

Buffy had floated off into her own world, dizzy from the bloodloss, but the words "Willow's dead" and the look on Tara's face brought her jolting back into reality. "Will?" She asked weakly, disbelieving.

"Buffy." Tara turned her attention to the injured Slayer. "Later. Right now, you need to get better." She laid her hands over the Slayer's wound and started to chant softly, under her breath. She was lost in the words when Xander's voice reached her, and she ignored him.

"Tara," He said. She kept on speaking.

"Tara!" She looked up, annoyed that her spell had been interrupted. 

"Wha..." The words died on her lips as she saw the translucent figure that stood before them, smiling. "Willow?"

The ghost of the witch smiled at her. "I love you, Tara," she said.

Awe-struck, she didn't speak for a minute, but then the panic at never seeing her lover again rose her and she cried out. "Will, please don't leave me! You can still come back!"

The witch met her lover's eyes for a long moment, and Tara could see the love and pain in them, but she just gently shook her head before turning to Xander. "And you too, Xander. Tell Dawnie that I love her, and I never wanted to leave her, please?"

"Willow, please! We need you." Xander's voice was raw.

Her eyes turned sad. "It's my time. And it's hers, too." Her gaze rested on the Slayer's.

Tara shook her head and backed closer to Buffy, as if she could somehow keep the spectre away from her. "No. Buffy can live."

"Will. Please don't take her, too." Xander was ready to cry, and Tara was just amazed that he wasn't already.

Willow shook her head slowly. "Believe me, I wish that as much as you do. But... when I brought her back, she wasn't supposed to have come. It wasn't supposed to work. So you see, it's time that everything is made right."

"But she _did_ come back. So-"

Her words were cut off by a very faint rasp from the Slayer. "No. She's right." She smiled sadly. "I can feel it." She closed her eyes, and breathed out.

Slowly, a faint, misty form rose from the Slayer's body and went to stand beside her best friend. She reached out and took Willow's hand, and Willow looked over at her and smiled before returning her gaze to Tara.

Xander started to weep, and Tara did nothing to stop the flow of the tears down her own cheeks as she watched her lover. Willow stepped closer and reached out her hand to touch Tara's hair, but it went right through her. She stepped back.

"We're going to a better place," she told Tara. "Remember that. Tell Dawnie we love her and she's going to grow up to be a beautiful woman and that we'll always be watching her."

She grew a little sadder. "Go on, Tara. Live. Go to school, get a degree, get out of Sunnydale. Find someone to fall in love with."

Tara's voice hitched as she tried to reply. "I-I could never love anyone like I love you," she sobbed.

Willow smiled sadly and went to reach out her hand again before remembering that she couldn't make contact. "Maybe not. But please, for me, just try?"

The blonde witch looked up and caught her lover's expressive eyes. Slowly, she nodded. "I'll try."

Buffy spoke for the first time, then. "Take care of Dawn for me, Tara."

The witch nodded again, a little more strongly this time. "I will."

The Slayer's form grew a little more translucent, and Tara's eyes shifted back to Willow, only to see her doing the same thing. "Remember, I love all of you." Buffy raised her hand and gave a little wave as the witch and Slayer best friends faded into mist and disappeared entirely. Tara collapsed on the ground, sobbing.

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	2. Chapter One

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****

Double Red

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: Not mine. Joss owns all, and wrecks episodes with the mastery of someone who owns all.

Summary: The events of "Seeing Red," twisted. AU from immediately before Warren shoots people.

Rating: PG-13 for now, probably R later.

* * *

Chapter One

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Tara shut herself down as much as possible as the solemn-faced paramedics bundled the limp bodies of Buffy and Willow into body bags and rode away. She signed where indicated, wrote down the Summers' telephone number and never spoke while they worked. Xander, tears streaming down his face, answered anything they asked.

It was a quick glance at the clock on wall that reminded Tara of the figures in this equation that they hadn't taken into account yet. Someone needed to tell Giles and Anya. And someone had to go tell Dawn.

Tara knew that she could easily ask Xander to do it-- he would, in a second. But the blonde Wiccan had spent all summer taking care of the grief-struck teenager, and she felt she was closer to Dawn than Xander was, as much as the teenager still idolized him. Rousing herself slowly, she spoke in a monotone. "I'm going to go get Dawn."

"Oh, God." Xander's face paled at the thought, and he went a sort of sickly shade of green. "Oh, God." He braced himself against the counter. Tara picked up the phone and handed it to him.

"Call Anya." The ex-demon was probably still mad at her ex-fiance, but Tara had no doubt that she would come. She would come and hold Xander and cry with him, and forget to be angry until they were both a little more together. Anya was strange, but she felt, just like the rest of them.

Tara grabbed her keys, her jacket and her purse, and walked out the door. Whatever was holding her together was extremely tenuous, and she needed to get to Dawn before she fell apart.

The drive was slow and boring, and Tara's mind went utterly blank. The image of Willow, looking at her, right before she'd pitched forward and died, tried to worm its way into her mind, but she pushed it ruthlessly away. Finding a parking space, she walked slowly but steadily into the high school.

The first desk she reached had a woman behind it shuffling papers, and she looked up with a smile. "Can I help you?"

"I need a student," Tara said dully. "Family emergency."

The woman's smile turned into a frown. "I'm sorry." She turned to the computer. "What's the name?"

"Dawn Summers."

"Are you family?"

Tara shook her head. "Tara Maclay. Buffy said she put my name on the list." Since Buffy's resurrection, a lot of changes had been made in the provisioning of Dawn's care-- among them that most of the Scoobies had the authority to made medical decisions for Dawn, pull her from school, or anything else necessary if Buffy couldn't.

The woman nodded. "May I see some ID, please?"

Tara reached into her purse and pulled out her UC Sunnydale student ID card and handed it to the woman. She looked at it briefly and then nodded and gave it back. "If you could wait a moment, I'll send someone to get her."

Tara nodded and took a seat in one of the chairs by the door. Blankly, she stared into space, waiting for Dawn to appear.

Dawn hurried in the door ten minutes later, carrying her bag of school supplies and looking mildly concerned. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd been pulled from school for Scooby business under the lie of a family emergency, so she wasn't overly concerned. Until she saw Tara.

"Tara?" Her face started to twist as she started to panic. The look in the witch's eyes was so... blank. "Oh god, Tara, what's wrong?"

Tara stood up and opened her arms. Dawn crossed hers and refused to come any closer. "Answer me, God damn it! What's wrong?"

The witch answered, softly. "Buffy. And Willow."

"They're hurt? But... but they're okay, right?" Dawn was becoming more frantic by the second. "Please, please tell me they're alright!"

Tara shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Dawn." Tears started to stream down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry."

Dawn's cheeks whitened in shock and she started to sway. She sat down abruptly on the floor, and Tara knelt down beside her, not very steady herself. "They're... they're... gone?" She looked up, praying she'd misunderstood the witch.

Tara nodded, and Dawn sat back in shock.

They sat on the floor for a few long minutes that way, the witch wrapped around the teenager, sobbing, and the brunette staring into space, not quite able to digest that something so dramatic had happened in her short life once again.

After five minutes or so, when the scene showed no sign of changing, the woman at the desk, who had been fidgeting, unsure of whether she should go over or not, finally stood and moved to the floor beside the girls. "I'm terribly sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

Anger roused Dawn out of her stupor, and as Tara wiped the tears off her face, ready to politely tell the woman no, she lashed out. "My sister and her girlfriend" she gestured at the witch, "are dead! There's nothing _anyone_ can do!" A huge sob rose up in her chest and she collapsed onto Tara's shoulder, finally letting the tears out.

Tara looked over at the woman, who didn't look mad, just upset. "I'm sorry," she said. "She's just in shock."

The woman nodded. "I understand." She stood, and with a final, sad glance at the two, went back to her papers.

Tara roused Dawn from the floor a few moments later, and still in shock, the teenager followed her numbly from the school. Tara had to hold open the passenger side door and help her inside, and then once she was in her own seat, do up Dawn's seatbelt for her. She seemed to have totally shut down.

The drive back home was silent, and a red-eyes Xander answered the door, a sobbing Anya clinging to him. "Why? Why did this have to happen?" She looked at the two girls as if there was chance they might know the answer. "She was a good Slayer, and a good person, and there was no vengeance demon anywhere that would have wanted this to happen and she shouldn't have died! And I didn't know Willow very well, but she was nice to me, and she didn't tell me to shut up like everybody else and she had all that power, you could feel it, and she could have been something great and now they're gone!" She burst into tears again, and Xander pulled her close to his side. Tara and Dawn ignored her.

"I called Giles," Xander said softly. "He's coming in on the first flight. He'll be here in the morning."

Tara nodded, and steered Dawn towards the living room. Urging the teenager to sit down, she sat beside her, and Xander pulled Anya down onto his lap in the chair across from them, where the vengeance demon curled up and sobbed. "So what do we do now?"

Dawn broke from her stupor long enough to turn her head and answer the witch's shaky, slightly panicked question. "Angel. We have to tell Angel."

******

The annoying ring of the phone woke the vampire from a sound sleep at five in the evening. It was May and the sun was far from set, so he grumbled as he turned over and picked up the receiver. It was his private line, something that he'd given out to only a few people, but Cordy and Gunn called it often enough when they knew he would be asleep and not answer the phone in the lobby. "Hello?"

A strained male voice crossed the line, clearly not happy at having pulled this particular duty. "Angel."

He frowned and struggled to place the voice for a moment. When he did, panic washed over him. "Xander? Buffy. Is she okay?"

Xander's voice was grim. "She's gone."

A flood of emotions rushed through the vampire, and his supernaturally strong body went weak on him. "Oh God."

The man on the other end of the line continued delivering the bad news, though. "Willow, too."

Angel didn't reply. He hadn't had time to wonder why Xander was calling-- the young man hated him with a fiery passion and it was usually Willow who called or showed up with news, and now the second piece of information hit him hard.

Xander let the line hang with silence for a moment until the vampire got his voice back under control. "Dawn?" He asked.

"Broken up, falling apart, but physically fine. Everyone else, too."

Head spinning, the vampire gave up on trying to process his emotions for the moment, and shut them ruthlessly down. "Who will her custody go to?" He asked, facing the one problem he could possibly do something about.

Xander's voice was grim. "State. We can't get a hold of her father, and she has no other relatives who want her..." He trailed off.

"Okay." The vampire tried several angles in his head, none of which worked out, but he figured he could fix this if he tried hard enough. "Bring her here. I've got some contacts, I'm sure we can do something about her custody."

"You can?" Xander sounded genuinely surprised, and a little taken aback.

"Yeah. I made sure... the first time." He didn't have to explain what he was talking about.

"Okay. Giles is flying in tomorrow, the funeral's the next day. We'll come back with you from the funeral." He didn't question that Angel would be there, and for that, the vampire was grateful. He really didn't want to have to wheedle an invitation to his own lover's funeral.

"What time?"

"Four o'clock. We'll set up a shelter for you, but we can't have the Slayer's funeral at night. It would attract too many baddies." His voice was void of emotion.

"Okay." He paused. "I'll be there. Plan to come back with me, and we'll take care of things."

"See you then." The phone clicked, and Xander was gone.

Slowly, the vampire returned it to its cradle, and put his hands on his forehead. The tears that fell from his eyes fell silently, but his body shook with deep-seated pain and grief. This was the state Cordy and Gunn found him in three hours later when they arrived to start their work "day."

******

Giles arrived with red-rimmed eyes and a small duffel the next morning. Xander was there to pick him up, Dawn not being in any shape to go out, but refusing to leave Tara's side. Anya was refusing to leave his side equally vehemently, but the vengeance demon was dealing better than the teenager, so they'd been voted to go get Giles from the airport.

When Giles came out of the terminal, Anya grabbed him and hugged him hard, sobbing on his shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly, and Xander peeled her off, resulting in he being smothered by grieving vengeance demon instead of the older man. He gave a weak smile and then held his ex-girlfriend, rubbing her back and kissing her forehead.

"Hello."

"Hey." Xander sounded tired, and much older than his age. "Good to see you. Come with us." His voice was almost void of emotion, and Giles followed him from the building to the car in absolute silence.

The ride back to the Summers' house is almost as bad. A few pleasantries were exchanged, but really, there was nothing said until they pulled into the driveway. The three people piled out of the car, and Giles went to get his duffel out of the trunk. Anya was staring at the house, something indescribleable crossing over her face. "I don't want to be here," she announced, and as they turned to look at her, she disappeared in a flash of air.

Giles could feel his jaw hanging a little. "She's... she's a demon again?" He asked, not really seeing any way to be delicate about it.

Xander nodded. "Apparently took D'Hoffryn's offer right after I left her at the alter." He winced, the pain of that day still fresh in his mind.

"How..." he paused. "How are you dealing with this?"

"You mean the torturing of men thing she does now?" Xander asked frankly, and Giles nodded reluctantly.

He sighed. "I don't really know. Right now, we're all in shock and grieving, and I'm just not spending any energy thinking about it. Later, I guess we'll have to deal, but right now... I don't want to lose her."

Giles nodded again, and didn't make any further comment. Xander smiled at him, trying to convey his gratefulness.

They made their way into the house quietly, and Tara rose from the couch to come and give him a gentle hug. He embraced her fondly, and smiled sadly at her bedraggled appearance. Dawn didn't move from the couch until he walked over to her, and then she rose and allowed his to embrace her, but didn't make any move to embrace him back. He tried not to take offense, after all, she was deep in shock.

Xander gestured at the house and then Giles. "Casa de Summers. Make yourself at home. We don't really do anything."

Giles frowned. "Pardon?"

"We don't really do anything. Dawn and Tara sit on the couch and cry and hold each other and Anya flits in and out when she wants, and when she's here, she's usually crying, too. I try and make everybody eat, but so far, nobody's touched it. We've run five movies through the VCR, but nobody's seen one." He sounded stretched thin, exhausted, and frustrated that he couldn't seem to be more helpful.

Giles nodded. "It's barely been a day, Xander. Be patient with them." He glanced at the two women on the couch, trying to gauge their response to Xander's little speech.

Tara made an effort to smile, but couldn't really. "He's right. I'm sorry about that."

Giles shook his head, noticing Dawn's utter lack of reaction. "There's nothing wrong with grieving. Though you should eat." He frowned at the stick-thin teenager. "Especially Dawn."

Tara shrugged. "She didn't eat for five days after... last time."

Giles nodded. "We'll try and get something into her before then, at least."

"I'm sitting right here." Dawn's voice was strained, and she sounded angry. Tara looked over at her kindly.

"Hey. We know. But you've been kinda incommunicado, sweetie. Do you want to eat?"

The teenager stood up, rod-stiff, and faced them. "My sister is dead for the third time, my deadbeat dad is hiding from the social workers so he won't have to take care of me, and the one person who held us all together last summer is gone. Do you really think I'm hungry?" She turned and moved silently out of the room.

Tara made a move to go to her, but Xander put out his hand. "I'll go." Gratefully, the witch nodded. She loved Dawn, but the teenager tended to lash out when she was in pain, and she didn't feel like being reminded of Willow's death again, when it was already all she could think about.

Giles sat carefully down on the sofa, a few feet between him and the most recent addition to the Scoobies. Quietly, he just let his presence offer itself, and slowly, Tara leaned over and let herself be wrapped in his arms. Her chest heaving silently, she curled up in the Watcher's arms and cried.

* * *

Previous

* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	3. Chapter Two

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****

Double Red

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: Not mine. Joss owns all, and wrecks episodes with the mastery of someone who owns all.

Summary: The events of "Seeing Red," twisted. AU from immediately before Warren shoots people.

Rating: PG-13 for now, probably R later.

* * *

Chapter Two

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"Dawn." Giles' voice was soft as he entered the room, and the teenager opened her eyes. "I don't mean to wake you, but there are some things we need to talk about."

She shook her head. "I wasn't asleep." Slowly, she pulled herself away from the limp form of Tara. "She is, though. Can we take this somewhere else?"

Giles nodded, impressed and a little bit worried at how well Dawn had recovered in just two days. He knew she'd closed herself off emotionally and he worried about the potential consequences, but right now, she needed to deal in her own way, and he was going to do his best to respect that.

Dawn sat down at the kitchen table and nodded with her head for Giles to take a seat. "What is it?"

Giles looked at the table, not quite sure where to start. Dawn sighed in impatience.

"Okay. Can you categorize it for me? Does it have to do with my deadbeat father and social services, or the things I've just abruptly inherited?"

Giles looked up in surprise, and Dawn gave him a smile full of irony but no amusement. "Hey, I've done this before, remember?"

He nodded slowly. "The latter, actually."

"What about them?"

The Watcher pulled off his glasses and started to clean them. "Well, you've just inherited a rather large sum of money, Dawn. And a house, and everything in it."

She nodded. "Okay."

"What would you like us to do with them?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Get rid of it. All of it."

"Not the money."

Dawn sighed. "No, not they money. Everything else. The house, the furniture, everything."

"Don't you want to keep some things?"

She looked away. "Buffy's things, I guess. Until... until I can look and see what I want to keep. And the books. Everything of mine that's not furniture."

"Okay." Giles paused. "Xander has arranged for us all to go to LA after the funeral; Angel thinks he might be able to do something about your custody."

Dawn nodded, not displaying any emotion about the news. Giles was mildly disappointed not to find her more enthusiastic, but kicked himself mentally for thinking that. She was still in shock, it wasn't her fault. He continued.

"We'll keep the house until you're ready to come back and look at what things you want to keep."

Dawn nodded again. "Is that all?"

The Watcher reached over the table and tried to touch her hand in a gesture of comfort, but she shied away. He took off his glasses again in a gesture of awkwardness and nodded. "Yes, I suppose it is."

"I'm going to watch a movie." She stood up and left the table. Giles took off his glasses, laid them down beside his teacup and sighed.

******

The funeral was meant to be a quiet affair, but so many people turned up that Giles was sure it almost qualified as a mob. Almost everyone in Sunnydale had had their ass saved by the Slayer at some point, and they all wanted to show their appreciation by coming to her funeral.

Dawn and Xander were incensed. "None of these people cared enough to acknowledge her when she was alive," Xander groused. "Why should they get to come to her funeral?!"

Tara shrugged, her eyes shiny with tears, but still the balancing factor. "Some of them did," she pointed out, nodding towards the bouncers at the Bronze, who always let Buffy in without paying or seeing ID. The Bronze was a frequent enough spot for trouble that they'd learned it was beneficial to everyone's health just to let her in.

Dawn edged closer to the witch, and Tara put an arm around her shoulders. The teenager rested her head on Tara's shoulder and closed her eyes, and the witch pulled her as close as she could, as though she could shield her from the horrors of what was going on with her body.

Angel stood under the canopy they'd arranged, and watched, silent tears falling down his face as Buffy and Willow were lowered into the ground. Tara's power of attorney granted her the right to choose Willow's resting place, and she knew the witch would have wanted it to be beside Buffy. The elder Rosenbergs' hadn't protested too heavily-- they knew that there was nothing they could do.

The high Priestess that Tara had gotten to do the ceremony blessed the Slayer and witch as the dirt was heaped on their coffins. The crowd was silent as she spoke, and the girls were laid to rest.

Dawn and Tara had decided not to deliver eulogies. They had both agreed that Willow and Buffy had been so special that no words could adequately describe them, so instead, they would use silence. So, after the graves were filled in and the fresh dirt made into two mounds, the girls knelt at their feet and said a silent prayer, Buffy first, and then Willow.

Finally, some murmuring softly but for the most part silent, the mob went on its way. Dawn and Tara held each other and then Xander for a while before Giles roused himself from his grief and started pulling supplies out of his car. 

Wiping her eyes and standing slowly, Tara pulled away and began to bless a circle around the two new graves, lighting the points of the pentacle with white candles. Tara sat at the point of the star, Dawn on her left and Xander on her right. Giles and Cordelia, who had come to the funeral from LA, made up the other two points. Anya had argued that she had known Buffy and Willow better than Cordy, and therefore should have gotten that spot, but Tara had told her sadly that her demon energy would offset the balance of the blessing.

Dawn had gotten nervous at that point, and fidgeted for a while before finally managing to ask Tara if the energy of the Key would harm the intent of the blessing the same way. Tara had assured her it wouldn't-- the energy of the Key was neutral, and the choices of Dawn Summers, the girl, decided whether she was good or evil. Anya, on the other hand, she'd explained, while maybe not exactly evil, couldn't be good either, anymore. She had chosen to take on a demon of her own free will, something that tainted her soul forever.

So the circle sat and touched their hands to the earth as Tara intoned a blessing in Latin, then a similar one in English that the others could follow and repeat. It was dual-purpose-- a blessing to the continued happiness of Buffy and Willow, wherever they were, and a protection charm on the area to prevent a desecration of their graves. However painful of a thought that was, they had to be realistic and realize it was a distinct possibility someone would try.

The sun was beginning to set as they finished, Angel standing under the awning they'd erected for him with Anya by his side, both waiting for things to be wrapped up. Blowing out and gathering up the candles, Tara placed her magickal supplies back into the bag Giles had gotten, and helped Dawn pull their other bags from his car. They were going to go back to LA with Angel and Cordy.

Giles was going to stay in Sunnydale until the house had been sold and the insurance claims put through. They had all encouraged him to go with them, that being in Sunnydale wasn't healthy for him in any sense of the word, but he refused. Tara thought that perhaps he needed a few days alone to think and maybe just be in the Summers' home, getting used to the idea that Buffy was really and truly, finally gone. She only hoped he didn't put himself into an extremely bad mental place while he did so.

Angel drove the black convertible he'd brought, Cordy in the front seat and Dawn and Tara in the back, the roof up. Xander followed closely behind, him and Anya and the rest of their bags in his car. Anya could have easily teleported to LA, but Angel had pointed out that maybe that wasn't the preferred way of meeting his co-workers. It had been suggested that she stay in Sunnydale with Giles until everyone was at Angel's place, but she hadn't wanted to leave Xander.

The ride was long and silent in the convertible. Angel didn't speak at all, Cordelia tried briefly to get Dawn to talk and then gave up, and Tara stared out the front window for the entire trip. In Xander's car there was less silence due to Anya's babbling and occasional sobbing, but the ride was still long. When they pulled to a stop in front of the Hyperion, everyone was glad.

Angel, Xander, Tara and Dawn grabbed bags and carried them inside, setting them down in the lobby. A greenish demon with red horns was waiting for them alongside a skinny brunette and a bald black guy. Dawn looked over everyone fairly impassively, and Xander nodded his hello tiredly. Tara attempted to smile, but she couldn't quite manage it.

Angel's voice broke the silence. "Everyone, this is Gunn, Fred and Lorne." He pointed at the black man, the girl, and finally the demon. He then nodded his head at the Sunnydale crew. "Guys, this is Xander, his ex-girlfriend Anya, Willow's girlfriend Tara and Buffy's sister Dawn." They all nodded distractedly.

Lorne shook his head, a sad expression on his face. "Boy, you guys are a sorry-looking bunch. Awfully close to them, weren't you?" His face reflected real sympathy, and Tara and Dawn nodded. Xander studied him with a suspicious eye, but didn't say anything.

He shook his head again. "Terrible tragedy. We have some rooms for you, but there's only three. How do you want to work this?" Angel seemed partially paralyzed, so the Host had quickly decided it was time to step in and play host.

"Dawn and I can share," Tara offered, and the teenager nodded.

"Yeah."

Lorne nodded back. "Good. Then let's go get you settled in, okay?" He waited as they picked up their bags, leaving a couple for Angel, and then started up the stairs. The vampire tagged along at the end of the group.

Lorne opened the doors to three rooms, two beside each other and one across from them. "This is a hotel and we have a lot of rooms, as you may have noticed," he explained, "but these are the only ones with electricity and plumbing that works all the time."

Xander looked inside the first room they came to, deemed it satisfactory, and threw his bags inside. He closed they door even as they continued a few more steps down the hallway.

Anya took the room next door, though she wasn't sure if she would use it. She was still mad at Xander, and so part of her protested at the idea of sleeping next to him, but she was so full of pain that she wasn't really sure she could muster up the energy to be mad enough to stay away. The indecision in her head plagued her, and she was touchy and easily angered, something they could all identify with at the moment.

Rather than face her fears, she shook her head and teleported out. Maybe helping scorned women would take her mind off things. Or, Halfrek was always encouraging her to turn to new types of vengeance... she could go enact some wishes for the families of murder victims. 

She smiled a cruel smile. _That could have some potential._

******

Cordy was sitting in the lobby, trying to read an ancient demonology book and take her whirling mind off of everything when Angel flew through. The vampire had gotten so much less tense lately that she'd almost forgotten what he looked like in full brood-mode. Even the loss of Connor hadn't made him this particular kind of crazy. Rather, he'd been obsessed with getting his son back. But Buffy had already come back once, and now she was gone for good, and he was back in the mood.

He was tall, and he was mightily pissed off so his presence seemed even larger than it was. The leather duster flew behind him and the boots that he'd taken to wearing only on especially rough cases stomped over the floor, despite the stealth with which he was capable of moving. His face was furrowed with anger and pain, and he didn't speak to or acknowledge anyone.

Cordy was pretty sure demons would be going out of their way to avoid him tonight.

As soon as he'd cleared the door, Gunn glanced at Cordy and sighed. "Well. I guess Hurricane Angel has made his appearance."

Fred leaned over and asked quietly like she was afraid he might still hear her, "He's done this before?"

Cordy looked up from the book she'd gone back to trying to decipher. "Oh yeah. And that was the light version of Angel-brood. He used to be worse than that, all the time, in Sunnydale."

"Wow." Fred pondered this for a moment. "He seems so sad."

"Anguished," Gunn offered softly, uncharacteristically feeling sympathetic towards the vampire.

"It was pretty much a permanent state when I first met him," Cordy agreed. "You know, I don't think I saw him laugh until sometime last year."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

They all went back to their previous activities, but the Seer gave up on the book in her lap a few moments later. She wasn't getting anything done, her head was spinning too fast. Despite the outward animosity she and Buffy had shared, they'd been close, in a manner of speaking. Certainly she'd been closer to Buffy than she had to anyone else before LA. Well, except Xander. 

And the witch... well she wasn't particularly fond of Willow, especially after seeing the witch and Xander cheating on her and Oz. Let no one say that Cordelia Chase couldn't hold a grudge. But she'd never wished her dead.

Well, maybe once. Or twice. But she hadn't meant it!

The urge to hit something as hard as she could came over her and she stood abruptly. "I'm going downstairs."

Gunn looked over at Fred, who was immersed in something on the computer, as the Seer disappeared. "Looks like it's hit both of them pretty hard."

Fred, too, was following Cordy with her eyes as she stomped off. "Yeah."

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